Aldous Huxley
was born on July 26, 1894, in Laleham near Godalming, Surrey, England, but he
grew up in London. His family was well-known for its scientific and
intellectual achievements: Huxley's father, Leonard, was a renowned editor and
essayist, and his highly educated mother ran her own boarding school. His
grandfather and brother were top biologists, and his half-brother, Andrew
Huxley, won the Nobel Prize in 1963 for his work in physiology. When he was
sixteen, Aldous Huxley went to England's prestigious Eton school and was
trained in medicine, the arts, and science. From 1913 to 1916 he attended
Balliol College, Oxford, where he excelled academically and edited literary
journals. Huxley was considered a prodigy, being exceptionally intelligent and
creative.

There were many
tragedies in Huxley's life, however, from the early death of his mother from
cancer when he was just fourteen to nearly losing his eyesight because of an
illness...